Recently we received news that a member of Artist Run Website's community, Franck De Las Mercedes had tragically lost his home and studio in a fire. Franck is known for his expressive, bright paintings and a project called Peace Boxes - a mail-art project that sends peace, love and hope to people all over the world.

We wanted to help the De Las Mercedes family by letting others know about the incident so that you can offer support and encouragement to Franck and Nicola at this time. They are accepting warm wishes, care packages and donations which you can learn more about here: http://franckdelasmercedes.com/blog/posts/3470/very+sad+news

"For people who don't know, there was a fire in our building the morning of 2/18/2014 and the FDLM home/studio burned down. My life's work is gone, we lost it all, but Nicola and I are doing fine and staying positive. We're very lucky to have the love and support of our family and friends.

We wanted to say thank you for all the kind wishes, thoughts and prayers. After many requests (and much hesitation on our end) we've created a PayPal donation page for those who have expressed a desire to contribute to the De Las Mercedes - Blount rebuilding fund. We will also continue to accept kind wishes, thoughts, prayers and lots of love.Thank you again." - Franck and Nicola

Franck makes vibrant paintings full of drips and expressive marks that are absolutely bursting with colour. He also created a beautiful project called "Peace Boxes" where he send seemingly empty boxes that are labelled to contain love, hope and peace.

About the author

With a compulsion to create unique visual stories, her paintings often follow the thread of a heroine's misadventures through a surreal landscape.

She's had the pleasure of teaching at Langara College and given community workshops on painting techniques with an emphasis on watercolour, oil and acrylic. She is a board member at the Grunt gallery. Google+